I planned to get the account started this week. However, the market is high right now. Does it make sense to wait until the market settles a bit from the Fiscal Cliff issue? When is the next tax reform meeting?

Don't rationlize a delay in opening this new retirement account. Just get it done while you're motivated. I don't understand trying to time the market on a $1,000. retirement investment. Say we get hit with a 20% market downturn next week, which would be bad timing. And, the result for you will be a loss of $200. If you try and out think this and don't open the account and set up monthly automatic contributions for 2013, it will be a bigger loss than a couple of hundred bucks.